You may find this interesting: different people number the ten commandments differently! Some people consider our first and second commandments to be combined and treated as the first. The idea being that “You shall have no other god before me” and “Do not have carved idols” are both about worshipping God alone. There’s been a lot of debate on how to number them, validated by the fact that the Bible doesn’t explicitly number them one by one in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5. In general, the Catholic Church and some High-Church protestants such as Lutheran and Anglican use the numbering system they read from Saint Augustine, which combines our first and second commandments and places “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain” as commandment number two. The Eastern Orthodox Church and most Protestant denominations view it as the third commandment. So, I refer to “do not take the Lord’s name in vain” as the third commandment in this article. (Carmen Imes describes the difference in counting in her book, Bearing God’s Name p. 45-48)

GOD’S NAME IS MORE THAN A SWEAR WORD
If your story is anything like mine, you likely grew up hearing that the third commandment was about not saying “Oh my God” and other forms of “substitute expletives” with reference to God. While I believe that way of thinking is not really the focal point of the third commandment, I still affirm there is a great deal of wisdom in being careful with how we use all words, especially those which reference our King. Words have a great deal of power. To evoke God’s name as a swear word, whether consciously or not, is an attempt to harness the weight of God to facilitate a frustration of our own. In my experience, a healthy relationship with God does not often include using His name in anger or to direct hostilities to a person or thing. So, having affirmed that, let me explain how I’ve come to change my thinking on the third commandment thanks to some good Bible scholarship from other people.
In the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.” We open that prayer expressing our commitment to a holy Name—Yahweh—the name of the God of Israel of the third commandment. Now, if we did not pray that phrase, would that make God’s name any less holy? If we don’t follow the third commandment, are we diminishing the holiness of God’s name? No, of course not.

HOLINESS IS MORE THAN A BUZZWORD
John Walton talks about holiness in a way I find helpful. He writes, “holiness does not describe a property of Israel; it describes a property of Yahweh…saying that (for example) Ares is the god of war does not tell us anything about war; it tells us something about Ares.” (Lost World of the Torah, p. 58). To say that Yahweh is the God of Israel, and of us—to say that Yahweh chose us, loves us, sent Jesus who saves us, does not abandon us, is committed to a flourishing and redeemed future…all that says a great deal about the character of our God. To say that God’s name is holy is to recognize that there is something completely set apart about this God from other gods.
If you read last week’s blog post, you’ll remember that these ten commandments were given to Israel as a way to shape their society in response to their freedom from slavery and their freedom for relationship with God. Carmen Imes, who is mostly responsible for how I’ve reshaped my thinking about the third commandment, said this in a podcast episode, “[The Israelites are] already free, and the laws are a way of showing them how to live in freedom. And if we re-conceive that, it shifts it in a way that we can begin to see how it might be valuable for us as well—if it’s not meant to earn salvation and instead meant to shape the way we live as a grateful response to salvation.”
Dr. Imes is saying that these ten commandments are not a means by which Israel is saved if they can check all the legal boxes. God has already saved them from slavery, and God has saved them for a new, flourishing life. These ten commandments are a part of shaping life in that new way. Imes says that Israel’s time in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land is “Far more than just a place to pass through, it is the workshop of Israel’s becoming.” (Bearing God’s Name p. 18). And between the Lord’s prayer and this understanding concerning the significance of the 10 commandments, we come to suspect there is more here than a discussion about cursing.

BEARING THE NAME MEANS BEING TRUE TO GOD’S WORD
Most of you know from listening to the sermons at First Church that there are many cases in which the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew and Greek—and a little Aramaic) often have more nuancing to explain than is seen at first blush in modern English. The third commandment is one such example. There are two words in particular to look at more closely. We often read the translation of Exodus 20:7 as “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain…” (we often end it there rather than finishing the verse.) The words we ought to meditate on a bit are the English take and vain.
In Hebrew, the word we translate as take also means bear or carry. It’s used in a spiritual sense throughout the Bible to talk about how we bear guilt when we do something wrong to someone else – it’s a defining feature that goes with us until we are forgiven. That’s a negative example, but the positive example is the third commandment. The name of God is something we take with us, and it defines us in a way. When someone bears the name of God, they are in some way claiming a sharing of identity. My last name is Conrad. I got that from my dad, who got it from his dad. In a way, I bear the name of many people before me and after me. As children of God, we must meditate on how significant it is to bear the name.
The other word, vain, feels like an old word we don’t use too much anymore. Interestingly, the Hebrew word we translate as vain here is the same word that is used in the ninth commandment, “You shall not bear a false witness.” In Hebrew, vanity is about emptiness, falsehood, untrustworthiness, lack of integrity…etc. We could think of the third commandment as “thou shalt not bear the name of the Lord your God in emptiness.”
WALKING THE CHRISTIAN WALK
When we call ourselves “Christian” we are in a way representing God to other people. Are we a faithful representation? (There’s a difference between faithful and perfect.) We are supposed to see ourselves as part of God’s family, and thus we ought to allow God’s ways to shape us so that we surrender ourselves to God’s character, will, and ways.
To bear the name in vanity would mean to represent God but behave in ways which are inconsistent with God’s desires for life. It is fitting that this command then leads us into a Sabbath command, and commands which direct us in how our thought, speech, and action harm or nourish those around us.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- Am I representing the character of God well in my behavior and words?
- Am I using God’s name to justify actions or attitudes that align more with my desires than with His will?
- Do my actions reflect the holiness of God, or do they carry His name into empty or dishonorable spaces?
- When I do bear the name of the Lord in emptiness, how should I react?
RESOURCES
- BibleProject. “Book of Exodus Summary | Watch an Overview Video (Part 2).” Accessed January 2, 2025. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/exodus-19-40/.
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———. We Studied the Law in the Bible (Here’s What We Found), 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BGO9Mmd_cU
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Duncan, Ligon. “The Third Commandment: Do Not Wrongly Take God’s Name.” Reformed Theological Seminary. Accessed January 2, 2025. https://rts.edu/resources/the-third-commandment-do-not-wrongly-take-gods-name/.
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Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. InterVarsity Press, 2019.
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———. “Taking God’s Name in Vain? Feat. Dr. Carmen Imes.” Accessed January 2, 2025. https://bibleproject.com/podcast/taking-gods-name-vain/.
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———. YouTube. “Carmen Joy Imes.” Accessed January 3, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVM-Oq9H-LqH0RJJulhvjlg.
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Kelly, Ryan. “Are You Obeying the Third Commandment?” The Gospel Coalition, June 16, 2017. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/are-you-obeying-the-third-commandment/.
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Rabbi Ronald Isaacs. My Jewish Learning. “The Ten Commandments.” Accessed January 3, 2025. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Shavuot/In_the_Community/Torah_Reading_and_Haftarah/The_Ten_Commandments.shtml.
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Richardson, Joseph T. “St. Augustine on How to Divide the Ten Commandments: Did Catholics ‘Change’ the Ten Commandments?” The Lonely Pilgrim, October 9, 2013. https://lonelypilgrim.com/2013/10/09/st-augustine-on-how-to-divide-the-ten-commandments-did-catholics-change-the-ten-commandments/.
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Walton, John H., and J. Harvey Walton. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context. InterVarsity Press, 2019.
I have really enjoy both of the blogs. They give more information concerning the commandment that we heard about in Sunday’s sermon. I hope that more people are using the blogs to further their study on the 10 Commandments.
Hello Suzanne! Thanks for the comment and the encouragement, I’m really glad to hear it! I hope we can continue offering resources that are truly helpful for people – so it’s good to hear what’s working and what’s not.